Addiction to Cocaine in California

It is shockingly easy to become dependent on cocaine in California. Narcotic pushers focus on the middle school and high school kids simply because they figure they're going to have a customer for good. That is, the lifespan of the teen. We have all been adolescents at one time or other. And just like students at present, at a comparative age we felt like we were indestructible. Undesirable things transpired in other households. Only kids coming from the poor area of town wound up on drugs. How wrong we were.

We are all self-destructiveDrug dependency is usually a non-discriminating demon. Drugs are available in the most wealthy of all rich sections, at expensive private schools, in the homes of the renowned and people seeking to be famous.

Seemingly, it is merely the famous and infamous that any of us hear that have overdosed on cocaine. It makes the days news and we ask ourselves what might have made this very successful person take his own life with drugs whether it was deliberate or unintentional. Every so often we hear about the high school or college all-star that dabbled in drugs and died. The same thing drove the well known actor, performer, musician, sports star as drives the ignorant, poor youngster in the ghetto. Cocaine can have a formidable hold on anybody who tries it.

Many cocaine addicts begin as recreational users during parties or entertainment venues. What these casual users are unaware of is that to get the same high, the cocaine dose must go higher and higher to maintain that effect.

If you need someone other than the cocaine addict in California to ?blame? for the dependency, look to dopamine. Dopamine is a powerful chemical in our brains that governs reward-driven learning. When looking at a brain scan of a person who has just won an Olympic Gold Medal, the amount of dopamine will be much higher than a person who is watching television. The larger the reward, the more dopamine. Cocaine acts directly on that part of the brain that regulates dopamine. The more cocaine, the better the addict feels. The results are alertness, pleasure and euphoria.

The downside of this jolt of dopamine-producing stimulant is that once the person comes down from the high, the level of dopamine is less than when he took the hit of cocaine. With the drop in dopamine, the user is depressed, lethargic and irritable. The only thing that will bring the user back up is another hit of coke. Thus begins the vicious cycle. Once a person is addicted to cocaine, it becomes the most important factor in life. It rules over family, career, personal looks and hygiene, and even life itself.

Cocaine users who inject the drug run a greater risk of catching Hepatitis C through shared needles. Hepatitis C is now becoming a major epidemic in America. It is a blood disorder that may or may not be curable. If a cocaine user with Hepatitis C goes into a bathroom with a bloody nose and the blood drops close to the sink, without proper disinfecting the germs can last up to 12 hours. If an unsuspecting person comes in after the infected cocaine user and has an open cut on his or her hand, they are exposing themselves to the disease. This is a blood disorder that can shut down the liver.

The cocaine addicts in California have special treatment centers with a medical staff specializing in treating cocaine users. The first team the patient will run into will consist of a physician, psychologist, nurse, counselor, dietician and many other staff members specializing in the art of treating cocaine addicts. These centers are not institutional warehouses for drug addicts.

Many of the treatment facilities provide private rooms with all the comforts of a fine hotel and are set in serene country like settings. Many offer outdoor activities, spa treatments and group sessions featuring kindred souls going through the same addictive behaviors. In California, help for cocaine addiction is merely a phone call away.